Stock Market & Financial Investment News

Deutsche Bank to hold a conference22nd Annual Media, Internet & Telecom Conference is being held in Palm Beach, Florida on March 10-12 with webcasted company presentations to begin on March 12 at 7:45 am; not all company presentations may be webcasted.Webcast Link

Analysts upbeat on Comcast despite mixed resultsAfter Comcast (CMCSA) yesterday reported lower than expected fourth quarter profits and higher than expected revenue, analysts remained upbeat on cable giant’s outlook. WHAT'S NEW: Weak revenue from NBC Universal, along with lower than expected TV and Internet subscriber totals, weighed on Comcast's results in Q4, Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves wrote in a note to investors today. Meanwhile, Comcast’s profits were hurt by $99M of expenses during the quarter related to its pending acquisition of Time Warner Cable (TWC), the analyst reported. However, the investments that Comcast is making in its broadband and video platform should make its offerings superior to its competitors in all parts of the country, causing its broadband subscriber base to continue to grow, the analyst stated. In a favorable scenario, Comcast's video subscriber totals could rise in 2016, added Hargreaves. Additionally, Comcast's acquisition of Time Warner Cable (TWC) will be approved, enabling it to benefit from synergies, predicted Hargreaves, who kept a $65 price target and Outperform rating on Comcast. Gregory Miller, an analyst at Canaccord, raised his price target on the shares to $70 from $62. The company's results indicate that its underlying operations are solid, Miller wrote. Moreover, Comcast's comments suggest that the growth of the company's cable business could accelerate this year, while NBC's broadcast and theme park businesses could stay strong, according to Miller. The analyst believes that the Time Warner Cable deal will probably be approved. He reiterated a Buy rating on Comcast. PRICE ACTION: In early afternoon trading, Comcast rose 1% to $60.

Comcast price target raised to $70 from $62 at CanaccordCanaccord raised its price target on Comcast (CMCSA) to $70 from $62 despite weaker than expected Q4 results. The firm cited expectations for continued momentum with Cable Communications, Broadcast, and Theme Parks as well as its merger with Time Warner Cable (TWC). Canaccord maintained its Buy rating on Comcast shares.

Comcast increases dividend, share repurchasesComcast Corporation (CMCSA) announced that it increased its dividend by 11.1% to $1.00 per share on an annualized basis. In accordance with the increase, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of 25c a share on the company’s common stock, payable on April 22 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on April 1.In addition, Comcast announced that its Board of Directors has increased its stock repurchase program authorization to $10B. At this time, Comcast plans to repurchase $4.25B during 2015, subject to market conditions. Additional stock repurchases will be determined after the closing of the Time Warner Cable (TWC) merger and the subsequent divestiture transactions.

AT&T VP critical of Dish auction tacticsAT&T (T) VP of Federal Regulatory Joan Marsh stated in a post to a corporate blog that FCC Auction 97 represents "hard evidence that there is significant continuing interest in licensed spectrum... It didn't matter that it was mid-band spectrum. It mattered only that it was broadband spectrum." Marsh notes that Dish (DISH) won more licenses than any other bidder though "none of that spectrum is currently supporting commercial wireless services," with her suggestion being that "auctions should be designed to ensure that licenses go to those willing to deploy networks – not speculators or stockpilers...The government should continue to place a high priority on allocating new licensed bands to the wireless industry." Marsh continues her analysis of Dish, claiming the double and triple-bidding activity carried out by its two designated entities "circumvented auction activity rules, masked actual demand and distorted the auction," as they were able to win significant allocations while enjoying a 25% small business discount. In response to Dish claims that all companies use DEs, Marsh replies that "in more recent auctions... bidders like AT&T, Verizon (VZ) and T-Mobile (TMUS) had no DE relationships, participated directly and paid full price for their licenses." Reference Link

comScore announces global integration with Flurry from YahoocomScore (SCOR announced an integration with Flurry through Yahoo's (YHOO) Flurry Pulse solution, which will enable Flurry clients to streamline application tagging required for unified measurement in comScore Mobile Metrix and Media Metrix Multi-Platform. The beta period for this integration is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2015.

j2 Global acquires assets of Email Direct, terms not disclosedj2 Global announced that its Campaigner Email Marketing brand has acquired the assets of EmailDirect, a California-based provider of email marketing services. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed and the financial impact to j2 is not expected to be material.

AT&T to match Google Fiber speed, pricing in Kansas City area, KC Star saysAT&T (T) announced on Sunday that it would offer Internet service in Kansas City and several of itssuburbs, with the same speed and pricing as Internet service provided by Google's Google Fiber service in the region, according to The Kansas City Star. Reference Link